The history of human activity in
Michigan, a U.S. state in the Great Lakes, began with
settlement of the western Great Lakes region by Native
Americans perhaps as early as 11,000 BCE. The first
European to explore Michigan, Étienne Brûlé, came in
about 1620. The area was part of Canada (New France)
from 1668 to 1763. In 1701, the French officer Antoine
de la Mothe Cadillac, along with fifty-one additional
French-Canadians, founded a settlement called Fort
Pontchartrain du Détroit, now the city of Detroit. When
New France was defeated in the French and Indian War, it
ceded the region to Britain in 1763. After the British
defeat in the American Revolutionary War, the Treaty of
Paris (1783) expanded the United States' boundaries to
include nearly all land east of the Mississippi River
and south of Canada. Michigan was then part of the "Old
Northwest". From 1787 to 1800, it was part of the
Northwest Territory. In 1800, the Indiana Territory was
created, and most of the current state Michigan lay
within it, with only the easternmost parts of the state
remaining in the Northwest Territory. In 1802, when Ohio
was admitted to the Union, the whole of Michigan was
attached to the Territory of Indiana, and so remained
until 1805, when the Territory of Michigan was
established.
The opening of the Erie Canal in
1825 connected the Great Lakes with the Hudson River and
New York City, and brought large numbers of people to
Michigan and provided an inexpensive way to ship crops
to market. In 1835 the people approved the Constitution
of 1835, thereby forming a state government, although
Congressional recognition was delayed pending resolution
of a boundary dispute with Ohio known as the Toledo War.
Congress awarded the "Toledo Strip" to Ohio. Michigan
received the western part of the Upper Peninsula as a
concession and formally entered the Union as a state on
January 26, 1837.
When iron and copper were
discovered in the Upper Peninsula, impetus was created
for the construction of the Soo Locks, completed in
1855. Along with mining, agriculture and logging became
important industries. In 1899 Henry Ford built his first
automobile factory in Highland Park, an independent city
that is now surrounded by Detroit. General Motors was
founded in Flint in 1908. Automobile assembly and
associated manufacturing soon dominated Detroit, and the
economy of Michigan.
The Great Depression of the 1930s
affected Michigan more severely than many other places
because of its industrial base. However, the state
recovered in the post World War II years. The Mackinac
Bridge connecting the Upper and Lower Peninsulas was
completed and opened in 1957.
The area was inhabited from about
1000 B.C. to 1000 A.D. by the Native American Hopewell
culture. Later, according to Oral histories, Algonquian
peoples from the East Coast were driven west when
Iroquoian people migrated to the region from central
Canada and took their original homelands—These being the
ancestors of the Ojibwe, Odawa, Potowatomi, Mascouten
& Miami. Archaeology shows that this probably
occurred during the 12th-13th centuries. Originally, the
northern peninsula was largely claimed by the Ojibwe
nation, although the border region of Wisconsin was
claimed by the Menominee. Given that one of the oldest
recorded names for the tribe was also the
Mackinac, they most likely predate the other
Algonquians in the region. The entire southern peninsula
was home to a tribe called the Mascouten until the
Beaver Wars, which was probably home to a mixture of
Algonquian & Siouan peoples before. Their southern
border seems to very clearly be the Maumee River of Ohio
& their territory extended around Lake Michigan into
Indiana. During the Beaver Wars, the Iroquois of New
York pushed other tribes in league with the French hard
against Lake Huron, therefore several tribes migrated
into Michigan & declared war on the Mascouten &
Miami. The most likely identity for these tribes were
the Erie, Chonnonton & Anishinaabeg. The Iroquoian
tribes quickly continued on into northern & eastern
Ohio & the Anishinaabeg groups seem to have formed
the Sauk & Fauk tribes by the time of the oldest
surviving maps of the region, 1641. Either this, or the
Sauk & Fauk were chased into the region after
defeats further east. Due to the Beaver Wars, the
Mascouten migrated down to settle around the Wabash
River. Given the fact that they are
culturally related & the Mascouten disappear from
maps of the region around the same time that the new
name appears, they may have later become known as the
Wea, or Wabash tribe.
Afterwards, the Iroquois defeated
the other Iroquoian tribes of northern Ohio—the
Chonnonton, Erie & Petun—and continued into southern
Michigan by the 1660s.With the Iroquoians having
conquered the southern peninsula for themselves, the
other Algonquians began to refer to the nearby lake as
Michigan, which translates to "Big Cat" in their
language. This is most likely supposed to be a reference
to the Iroquoian water deity known as 'Blue Panther',
or, more accurately, "Cat which Stalks Below."
They defeated the Sauk & Fauk, who migrated west and
took refuge among the Ojibwe & Menominee. This
caused other wars between Algonquian & Siouan
peoples within the following decades.
Later, the Anishinaabeg tribes
north of Lake Superior (who were already allied with the
Huron) migrated down to the Lake Erie region, claiming
some land in southern Michigan. In the U.S., they were
known as the Odawa, & in Canada they were known as
the Mississaugas—both deriving from tribal &
subtribal names of the Anishinaabeg. The French migrated
west, settling the colony of Illinois around 1680, which
claimed all the land between the Great Lakes, Ohio
River, Mississippi River & Appalachian mountains.
Together with their native allies, they chased the
Iroquois out of the region by 1701, forcing them to sign
a treaty recognizing the Niagara River & the
Ohio-Pennsylvania borders as the ends of their
lands.
In the meantime, other tribes which
had settled in Ohio were continuously pushed west by new
settlers. Some settled in southern Michigan, however
these were mostly the Iroquoian Wyandot. Rumor also has
it that a group of Piscataway (An Algonquian tribe from
Maryland) called the Conoy migrated into West Virginia
& were noted as living around modern-day Detroit by
1819. If true, they most likely merged with the Odawa.
During the War of 1812, tribes who sided against the
United States were punished by seizure of land. With the
Indian Removal Act (best known for causing the Trail of
Tears in the south) of the 1830s, many natives were
pushed away from Ohio & Michigan, many choosing to
return to Canada. Despite this, many native tribesmen
were able to remain, if they forewent their tribal
allegiances & became American citizens. It was the
later laws of 50 years later, outlawing Native American
culture to control other tribes of the west, which
permanently destroyed this heritage.
The Ojibwe called their land
Mishi-Anishinaabaki
(Mey-shih-Ah-ney-shih-nah-baaah-key), or Greater
Anishinaabe Land. Since Anishinaabe was a collective
term for the Ojibwe, Odawa & Potowatomi/ Nishnabe,
who formed a governed confederacy known as the Three
Council Fires, most of the Algonquian peoples around
Lake Superior referred to their lands as 'something
Anishinaabaki.' This most likely confused the French,
who chose to simply translate the 'Mishi' part as
"Superior." Although the Anishinaabeg (plural) didn't
have a true, organized government (They would usually
elect temporary leaders called Ogidamoo in the moment.),
the sacred site of their council fire, where they would
conduct important political business, was known as
Michilimackinac. Today, it's known as Mackinac Island.
The Mascouten are supposedly so named for calling their
original homeland of southern Michigan "Maskoutenich,"
or "The Treeless Land," for the Erie Plains
region.
The first European explorer to
visit Michigan was the Frenchman Étienne Brûlé in 1620,
who began his expedition from Quebec City on the orders
of Samuel de Champlain and traveled as far as the Upper
Peninsula. Eventually, the area became part of Canada,
one of the large colonial provinces of New France. The
first permanent European settlement in Michigan was
founded in 1668 at Sault Ste. Marie by Jacques
Marquette, a French missionary.
The French built several trading
posts, forts, and villages in Michigan during the late
17th century. Among them, the most important was Fort
Pontchartrain du Détroit in 1701; it became the city of
Detroit. Up until this time, French activities in the
region were limited to hunting, trapping, trading with
and the conversion of local Indians, and some limited
subsistence farming. By 1760, the Michigan countryside
had only a few hundred white inhabitants.
Michigan as part of the Province of
Quebec 1774-1776. Territorial disputes between French
and British colonists helped start the French and Indian
War as part of the larger Seven Years' War, which took
place from 1754 to 1763 and resulted in the defeat of
France. As part of the Treaty of Paris, the French ceded
all of their North American colonies east of the
Mississippi River to Britain. Thus the future Michigan
was handed over to the British. However, since 1761, the
Indians in the area were not happy with the way the
British treated them. In 1763, the Indians were furious
that Great Britain had gained control of the area and
war began at Fort Detroit under the leadership of
Pontiac, and quickly spread throughout the region. The
war was known as Pontiac's War and lasted three years.
Eight British forts were taken; others, including Fort
Detroit and Fort Pitt, were held by the British
garrisons. In 1774, the area was made part of the
British province of Quebec. During this period Detroit
grew slowly; the rest of Michigan continued to be
sparsely populated because the British were more
interested in the fur trade and peace with the natives
than in settlement of the area.
From 1776 to 1837 During the American Revolution, the
local European population, who were primarily American
colonists that supported independence, rebelled against
Britain. The British, with the help of local tribes,
continually attacked American settlements in the region
starting in 1776 and conquered Detroit. In 1781, Spanish
raiders led by a French Captain Eugene Poure travelled
by river and overland from St Louis, liberated
British-held Fort St Joseph, and handed authority over
the settlement to the Americans the following day. The
war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in
1783, and Michigan passed into the control of the newly
formed United States of America. The states of New York,
Virginia, Massachusetts then Connecticut ceded their
territorial rights over the land. In 1787, the region
became part of the Northwest Territory. The majority of
Indians did not recognize the new government and instead
formed the Western Confederacy. General Anthony Wayne
with his Kentucky marksmen won the Battle of Fallen
Timbers which led to the end of hostilities and treaties
recognizing federal government sovereignty. The British,
however, continued to occupy Detroit and other
fortifications. Under terms negotiated in the 1794 Jay
Treaty, Britain withdrew from Detroit and
Michilimackinac in 1796. Questions remained over the
boundary for many years, and the United States did not
have uncontested control of the Upper Peninsula and
Drummond Island until 1818 and 1847,
respectively.
The land which is now Michigan was
made part of Indiana Territory in 1800. Most was
declared as Michigan Territory in 1805, including all of
the Lower Peninsula. During the War of 1812, British
forces from Canada captured Detroit and Fort Mackinac
early on, giving them a strategic advantage and
encouraging native revolt against the United States.
American troops retook Detroit in 1813 and Fort Mackinac
was returned to the Americans at the end of the war in
1815.
Over the 1810s, the indigenous
Ojibwa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi tribes increasingly
decided to oppose white settlement and sided with the
British against the U.S. government. After their
defeat in the War of 1812, the tribes were forced to
sell all of their land claims to the U.S. federal
government by the Treaty of Saginaw and the Treaty of
Chicago. After the war, the government built forts in
some of the northwest territory, such as at Sault Ste.
Marie. In the 1820s, the U.S. government assigned Indian
agents to work with the tribes, including arranging land
cessions and relocation. They forced most of the Native
Americans to relocate from Michigan to Indian
reservations further west.
In the 1820s and 1830s migrants
from New England began moving to what is now Michigan in
large numbers (though there was a trickle of New England
settlers who arrived before this date). These were
"Yankee" settlers, that is to say they were descended
from the English Puritans who settled New England during
the colonial era. While most of them came to Michigan
directly from New England, there were many who came from
upstate New York. These were people whose parents had
moved from New England to upstate New York in the
immediate aftermath of the American Revolution. Due to
the prevalence of New Englanders and New England
transplants from upstate New York, Michigan was very
culturally contiguous with early New England culture for
much of its early history. The Yankee migration to
Michigan was a result of several factors, one of which
was the overpopulation of New England. The old stock
Yankee population had large families, often bearing up
to ten children in one household. Most people were
expected to have their own piece of land to farm, and
due to the massive and nonstop population boom, land in
New England became scarce as every son claimed his own
farmstead. As a result, there was not enough land for
every family to have a self-sustaining farm, and Yankee
settlers began leaving New England for the Midwestern
United States. This resulted in Michigan's population
expanding rapidly in the 1820s. The Erie Canal caused
such an upsurge in immigration from New England that by
1837 "it seemed as if all New England were coming"
according to one pioneer. New England families
considered it a route to the "promised land". As a
result of this heritage, the New England element of
Michigan's population would remain culturally and
politically dominant for a long time.
Michigan's oldest university, the
University of Michigan was founded in Detroit in 1817
and was later moved to its present location in Ann
Arbor. The state's oldest cultural institution, the
Historical Society of Michigan, was established by
territorial governor Lewis Cass and explorer Henry
Schoolcraft in 1828.
Rising settlement prompted the
elevation of Michigan Territory to that of the
present-day state. In 1835, the federal government
enacted a law that would have created a State of
Michigan. A territorial dispute with Ohio over the
Toledo Strip, a stretch of land including the city of
Toledo, delayed the final accession of statehood. The
disputed zone became part of Ohio by the order of a
revised bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into
law by President Andrew Jackson which also gave
compensation to Michigan in the form of control of the
Upper Peninsula. On January 26, 1837, Michigan became
the 26th state of the Union.
From 1837 to 1860 Agriculture remained the main
economic activity before 1860. During the early 1840s,
large deposits of copper and iron ores were discovered
on the Upper Peninsula. Michigan became the leading U.S.
source of these ores by the end of the century, thanks
to the influx of experienced Cornish miners (from
England) to supervise operations. Michigan remained a
frontier society up until around the time of the Civil
War. Michigan pioneers were overwhelmingly of New
England origins, including New England transplants from
upstate New York. The amount with which the New England
Yankee population predominated made Michigan unique
among frontier states in the antebellum period. Due to
this heritage Michigan was on the forefront of the
antislavery crusade and reforms during the 1840s and
1850s.
Another result of this cultural
influence was the strength of the Republican Party in
Michigan. Long considered a "Yankee" party, Michigan
would remain heavily Republican from the Civil War until
the 1960s. The state's leadership in public education is
also directly attributable to the New England influence.
Towns such as Vermontville, Bangor, Hartford, Rochester,
Utica, and Palmyra Michigan were all named after towns
in New England where the founders of those towns were
from. The Congregational Church also was very strong in
Michigan from most of Michigan's history, due to the New
England origins of the state. New Englanders and New
England transplants from Upstate New York also filled
the overwhelming majority of leadership roles in
Michigan's early legislatures.
Michigan
in the American Civil War. Michigan actively
participated in the American Civil War sending thousands
of volunteers. A study of the cities of Grand Rapids and
Niles shows an overwhelming surge of nationalism in
1861, whipping up enthusiasm for the war in all segments
of society, and all political, religious, ethnic, and
occupational groups. However, by 1862 the casualties
were mounting and the war was increasingly focused on
freeing the slaves in addition to preserving the Union.
Copperhead Democrats called the war a failure, and it
became more and more a partisan Republican effort.
Michigan voters remained evenly split between the
parties in the presidential election of 1864.
After the war, the local economy
became more varied and began to prosper. During the
1870s, the lumbering, railroads, dairy farming and
diversified industry grew rapidly in the state. This led
to the rise of several wealthy socialite families such
as the Hartwick family. The population doubled between
1870 and 1890.
Toward the end of the century, the
state government established a state school system on
the German model, with public schools, high schools,
normal schools or colleges for training teachers of
lower grades, and colleges for classical academic
studies and professors. It dedicated more funds to
public education than did any other state in the nation.
Within a few years, it established four-year curricula
at its normal colleges for teachers, and was the first
state to establish a full college program for
them.
Railroads have been vital in the
history of the population and trade of rough and
finished goods in the state of Michigan. While some
coastal settlements had previously existed supplied by
sailing ships and steamers on the Great Lakes, the
population, commercial, and industrial growth of the
state further bloomed with the establishment of the
railroad.
In 1896, Detroit Mayor Hazen
Pingree, a Yankee Republican, was elected governor. He
was a social reformer who battled corporations and was
an early leader of the Progressive Movement. During his
four-year term, he promoted the regulation of railroad
rates, equal taxation, and municipal ownership of public
utilities. He also supported the direct election of U.S.
senators; an eight-hour workday; an income tax; primary
elections; the referendum, the abolition of child labor,
and compulsory arbitration of labor disputes. Opposition
from Democrats and business-oriented Republicans blocked
most of his proposals. Pingree expressed the Progressive
fear of corporate power, saying, "I do not condemn
corporations and rich men," he said, "but I would keep
them within their proper spheres. It is not safe to
entrust the government of the country to the influence
of Wall Street."
Urban Michigan grew rapidly in the
early 20th century, pulled along by the automobile
industry in Detroit and vicinity. The breakfast cereal
industry was based in Battle Creek where two Kelloggs
and a Post built on the local Seventh-day Adventist
heritage and put the city on the map. Less flamboyantly,
thousands of machine shops opened in medium and small
cities across the state.
During the early 20th century,
manufacturing industries became the main source of
revenue for Michigan – in large part, because of the
automobile. In 1897, the Olds Motor Vehicle Company
opened a factory in Lansing. In 1903, Ford Motor Company
was also founded nearby in Detroit. In 1904 William
Durant of the Flint, Michigan Durant Coach Works, a
maker of horse carriages, set his sights on Buick Motor
Cars which he soon acquired. With the mass production of
the Ford Model T, Detroit became the world capital of
the auto industry. General Motors was formed a few years
later as William Durant along with Alfred Sloan
purchased Oldsmobile, Cadillac, Oakland and other car
companies. They soon moved their headquarters from
Flint, Michigan to Detroit, Michigan. General Motors is
based in Detroit, Chrysler is located in Auburn Hills,
and Ford is headquartered in nearby Dearborn. Both
corporations constructed large industrial complexes in
the Detroit metropolitan area, exemplified by the River
Rouge Plant, which have made Michigan a national leader
in manufacturing since the 1910s. This industrial base
produced greatly during World War I, filling a huge
demand for military vehicles.
Jackson was home to one of the
first car industry developments. Even before Detroit
began building cars on assembly lines, Jackson was busy
making parts for cars and putting them together in 1901.
By 1910, the auto industry became Jackson's main
industry. Over twenty different cars were once made in
Jackson. Including: Reeves, Jaxon, Jackson, CarterCar,
Orlo, Whiting, Butcher and Gage, Buick, Janney, Globe,
Steel Swallow, C.V.I., Imperial, Ames-Dean, Cutting,
Standard Electric, Duck, Briscoe, Argo, Hollier,
Hackett, Marion-Handly, Gem, Earl, Wolverine, and
Kaiser-Darrin. Today the auto industry remains one of
the largest employers of skilled machine operators in
Jackson County.
With the expansion of industry,
hundreds of thousands of migrants from the South and
immigrants from eastern and southern Europe were
attracted to Detroit. In a short time, it became the
fourth largest city in the country - housing shortages
persisted for years even as new housing was developed
throughout the city. Ethnic immigrant enclaves rapidly
developed where churches, groceries, clubs and
businesses supported unique communities. The WPA guide
to the city in 1939 noted that there were students
speaking more than 35 languages in the public schools.
Ethnic festivals were a regular part of the city's
culture. At the same time, fear of Catholics was strong,
and fueled the nativism of the second Ku Klux Klan
recruited widely in the state. The Klan peaked in 1925,
but membership fell quickly after its internal scandals
were exposed. Reinhold Niebuhr, a German-American
Protestant minister trained at Yale Divinity School
became nationally famous as a Detroit minister who
attacked the KKK, which was strong among white
Protestants in the city.
The Great Depression caused severe
economic hardship in Michigan. Thousands of auto
industry workers were dismissed along with other workers
from several sectors of the state economy. The financial
suffering was aggravated by the fact that remaining
copper reserves in the state lay deep underground. With
the discovery of copper finds in other states located in
less deep rock layers, local mining fell sharply and
most miners left the region or resigned themselves to
short hours and long unemployment. After decades of GOP
dominance, the Democrats came back to power, as the
business-oriented Republican economic policies had
failed, the Democrats were energized, prohibition was
discredited, and Franklin D. Roosevelt offered a New
Deal. Washington spent heavily on relief, recovery, and
reform, relieved cities of the burden of relief, and
buttressed a political realignment that gave the
Democratic Coalition parity with the Republican Party in
Michigan. By 1936 the realignment was secure, as
powerful new industrial labor unions, especially the
United Auto Workers turned the factories from Republican
bastions to Democratic strongholds, and the ethnic and
black population had shifter to the
Democrats.
Young men from relief families
signed up for six-month tours in one of the state's 50
Civilian Conservation Corps camps in rural areas. They
were paid five dollars a month, plus room, board,
clothing and medical care, while their families received
$25 a month. The Works Progress Administration was the
largest federal agency. It hired more than 500,000
unemployed people (80% men) in Michigan alone to
construct major public works such as roads, public
buildings, and sewer systems—it was a larger labor force
that the state's entire auto industry.
Thanks to
new federal laws, labor unions grew rapidly after 1935,
and for the first time became a major presence in large
factories. The Flint Sit-Down Strike of 1936-37 was the
decisive event in the formation of the United Auto
Workers Union (UAW). Strikers occupied several General
Motors plants for more than forty days, and repelled (in
nonviolent fashion) the efforts of the state courts,
local police and National Guard to remove them. GM
signed a contract that legitimized the UAW, and its
membership in the next year grew from 30,000 to 500,000
members.
During World War II Walter Reuther
took control of the UAW, and soon led major strikes in
1946. He ousted the Communists from the positions of
power, especially at the Ford local 600. He was one of
the most articulate and energetic leaders of the CIO,
and of the merged AFL-CIO. Using brilliant negotiating
tactics he leveraged high profits for the Big Three
automakers into higher wages and superior benefits for
UAW members.
The entry of the United States into
World War II in 1941 the same year ended the economic
contraction in Michigan. Wartime required the
large-scale production of weapons and military vehicles,
leading to a massive number of new jobs being filled.
After the end of the war, both the automotive and copper
mining industries recovered.
Starting during World War I, the
Great Migration fueled the movement of hundreds of
thousands of African-Americans from the South to
industrial jobs in Michigan especially in Detroit.
Migration of white southerners from Appalachia to the
city increased the volatility of change. Population
increases continued with industrial expansion during
World War II and afterward. African Americans
contributed to a new vibrant urban culture, with
expansion of new music, food and culture.
The postwar years were initially a
prosperous time for industrial workers, who achieved
middle-class livelihoods, fostered the Baby Boom, and
sought better, more spacious housing in safer
neighborhoods. These were the years of the creation and
popularity of Motown Records. By late mid-century,
however, deindustrialization and restructuring cost many
jobs. The economy suffered and the city postponed needed
changes.
Railroads have been vital in the
history of the population and trade of rough and
finished goods in the state of Michigan. While some
coastal settlements had previously existed, the
population, commercial, and industrial growth of the
state further bloomed with the establishment of the
railroad.The state's proximity to Ontario,
Canada aided the transport of goods in a smooth
east-west trajectory from the eastern shore of Lake
Michigan toward Montreal and Quebec. Major
railroads in the state, prior to 20th century
consolidations, had been the Michigan Central Railroad
and the New York Central Railroad.
From part of Mackinac
County and unorganized territory.
Greek letter delta,
referring to the triangular shape of the original
county, which included segments of Menominee,
Dickinson, Iron and Marquette counties
